Chapter+2+and+3+Question+Reflections

**Chapter 2 pp. 33-57**
== **-The authors have listed five tools that would help educators grow their own Personal Learning Networks: Twitter, Diggo, Google Reader, Blogger, and Facebook. Tell how you are using each and some of the positives and/or negatives of each.** ==

**Twitter: I just really began following twitter after having an account for several years. I have been very excited about the connections I have made already. I actually will be skyping with Shannon Miller in the near future about things she has done using Skype in her classroom. **

**Diigo: I have been using this for a few years now and I like it for a variety of reasons. It is a great way to bookmark sites that you would like to use later and the Tag feature is a great benefit as well. I actually thing the two biggest strengths that I plan on sharing with my staff is the highlighting and note taking feature that Diigo has to offer. **

**Google Reader: Once again I have been using this for several years and by far the RSS feed I get the most out of if Free Technology for Teachers. I have also began to add blog feeds so everything that I want to use is in one handy spot. **

**Blogger: I have not used this much personally. The thing I struggle with with blogs for the teacher is getting to your audience, specifically the parents. I typically email parents weekly just so they know what is going on. I don't think that I would be able to convince parents to go to a blog to read about what is going on in the classroom, potentially if students were to create it they would though. **

**Facebook: This is something I use more for a personal life and not revolving around education. In the classroom, however, I have used a couple things that are very simillar. MyBigCampus is a great paid site that our high school uses. It is very similar to facebook but allows greater freedom for the teacher to add or remove certain components. Edmodo is another useful tool that has been used in the classroom. Students enjoy using this because it allows them to be engaged at their own pace. ** == **-On page 55, which of the seven activities do you fit into? Hopefully, not the Inactives! How do you fit into the other six?** ==

Looking at the figure on page 55 I feel like I fit into parts of each one. **Creator**: I use a webpage with my student to keep parents up to date and we have increasingly uploaded videos on to youtube this year. We tried branching outside of the classroom by offering our services to other grades with a desire to create movies to put on youtube, but have not had many people show an interest. **Conversationalists**: I am becoming more involved with facebook, but for the longest time I felt there were issues for a variety of reasons. One it often seemed that people simply wanted to use it as a gossip column. The second reason why I struggled with this slightly is that often times people post things that I don't want to hear so why would I want to read, granted it is my choice to read it or not. Lastly, which ties into the second often times people post so random of info that you have no clue what they are referring to. This also ties into a **Joiner** I am becoming more of a **critic** in my willingness to comment on what others have to write. For awhile I have felt that I have had little value in sharing what I know, but that is always improving.
 * Collector**: in some regards I am this and I will have to continue to improve on this as staff begins to come to me for ideas about integrating technology in the classroom.
 * Spectator**: By far the easiest one, but I am slowing getting away from this because I do realize I have something to say. People have often come up to me asking questions, now I have the opportunity to share what I know.